That is the difficult question. Not easily answered. I have personally tried to get some parishes more interested in building up census in their schools, versus multi-million dollar capital campigns for new Churches, etc. My attempts with pastors and with their Bishops have fallen on relatively deaf ears and I am at a losss as to why. I think in faithful parishes these sorts of talks would go well.But how do we get them to do it?
I hate to be hypercritical, but I keep thinking of a guy who said, “If leadership were shoes, the Catholic Bishops would be naked from the adam’s apple down.”
I think 1/3 is a very good portion, yet it should not be limited in any way. There are plenty of people in the pews that could sponsor entire annual tuitions for children of families who cannot afford it–they should be asked.I just can’t resist any thread on catholic schools, being the fan that I am of them.
Our parish funds about 1/3 of the cost of the catholic school education, the other 2/3 comes from tuition, which is about average in this area. We also do a lot of fund raising to keep tuition costs down, but fund raising is pretty standard at any school. By the way, we do have a pastor who has said repeatedly to let him know if you cannot afford the tuition but would like to send your children to the parish school. One of the many things that have impressed me about our school is how our pastor keeps it going on a much smaller budget than the local public schools. It seems to me there are some public school districts that continually throw more and more money into the school system and yet continue to see poor results on standardized tests and school attendance. Maybe politicians and school board members throughout this state might want to take a look at the formula for running catholic schools and incorporate some of those ideas into local public schools.
The catholic schools in this area are wonderful and I have no complaints, but I do worry about the fate of catholic schools in poorer areas, where neither collections nor families can support a parish school. I would love to see a whole diocesan dedication to supporting catholic schools.
And that’s exactly how to do it – an envelope every month for education, a foundation, and fund drives.Here in Lincoln, schools are a priority, and each parish his its own grade school. The parishes all fund the high school. Tuition per pupil is only a few hundred a year. I can’t say how it’s done, but I do know there’s an envelope every month for education, there’s a foundation, and fund drives. It can be done–at least it’s being done here.
Yup, the pastor already thought of that. Our Christmas Giving Tree (it has suggested donations written on paper ornaments. You take one during Advent and drop off the gift at our annual Giving Tree Concert just before Christmas) includes full and partial school tuition scholarships. Our school may not have a fancy gym and most kids pack a lunch rather than purchase the simple lunches for sale, but the education, academic and faithful, is top notch. There are plenty of parent volunteers in the library, lunchroom, etc. Better to do those things as a community than simply raise tuition (unlike our polities who don’t seem to mind raising taxes to pay for those things). Simplicity and cooperation are great teachers for the students at our parish school. I don’t want my kids to be educated where faith doesn’t matter; I want that to be part of their education. Incidentally, our Parish Religious Education Program (for non parish school students) is taught by volunteers, for the most part who are not certified religious teachers. Every year the director struggles to get volunteers to teach and assist. My oldest is an assistant and says after spending a day at public school, the last thing these kids want to do is sit through a night class. The teachers are sometimes way off in their catholic facts and tired themselves. As a former CCD kid myself, I have to say don’t expect the religious education to be anywhere near what the kids in the parish school get. I am not blaming the CCD teachers at all; I just understand it really doesn’t work. If you can make up the difference at home in religious education, God Bless you, my parents didn’t and it is embarrassing my kids now have to teach me the simplest things.I think 1/3 is a very good portion, yet it should not be limited in any way. There are plenty of people in the pews that could sponsor entire annual tuitions for children of families who cannot afford it–they should be asked.
I also think it incredible how things differ from parish to parish. I know of a situation in one parish that takes in 40-60k every Sunday in their weekly giving baskets, the have no debts of their buildings other then the usual maintenance, utilities, etc. Yet, they recently increased their school tuition by 60-70%, which caused them to lose many students. It turns out they plan to build a 15 million dollar addition to the school and they are willing to lose 1/3 of their student census to get the new digs. Meanwhile, a parish not far from that school charges close to half the tuition of that school, and that parish receives 10k a week in Sunday giving. Weird happenings imo.
Yup, the pastor already thought of that. Our Christmas Giving Tree (it has suggested donations written on paper ornaments. You take one during Advent and drop off the gift at our annual Giving Tree Concert just before Christmas) includes full and partial school tuition scholarships. Our school may not have a fancy gym and most kids pack a lunch rather than purchase the simple lunches for sale, but the education, academic and faithful, is top notch. There are plenty of parent volunteers in the library, lunchroom, etc. Better to do those things as a community than simply raise tuition (unlike our polities who don’t seem to mind raising taxes to pay for those things). Simplicity and cooperation are great teachers for the students at our parish school. I don’t want my kids to be educated where faith doesn’t matter; I want that to be part of their education. Incidentally, our Parish Religious Education Program (for non parish school students) is taught by volunteers, for the most part who are not certified religious teachers. Every year the director struggles to get volunteers to teach and assist. My oldest is an assistant and says after spending a day at public school, the last thing these kids want to do is sit through a night class. The teachers are sometimes way off in their catholic facts and tired themselves. As a former CCD kid myself, I have to say don’t expect the religious education to be anywhere near what the kids in the parish school get. I am not blaming the CCD teachers at all; I just understand it really doesn’t work. If you can make up the difference at home in religious education, God Bless you, my parents didn’t and it is embarrassing my kids now have to teach me the simplest things.I think 1/3 is a very good portion, yet it should not be limited in any way. There are plenty of people in the pews that could sponsor entire annual tuitions for children of families who cannot afford it–they should be asked.
I also think it incredible how things differ from parish to parish. I know of a situation in one parish that takes in 40-60k every Sunday in their weekly giving baskets, the have no debts of their buildings other then the usual maintenance, utilities, etc. Yet, they recently increased their school tuition by 60-70%, which caused them to lose many students. It turns out they plan to build a 15 million dollar addition to the school and they are willing to lose 1/3 of their student census to get the new digs. Meanwhile, a parish not far from that school charges close to half the tuition of that school, and that parish receives 10k a week in Sunday giving. Weird happenings imo.